Dusk event will bring bats and newts into focus

If you’re batty about bats, or nutty about newts, head down to Wharncliffe Heathlands Trust next month.

The Batty about Newts & Nightjars evening will enable visitors to spot, and get up close and personal with, a number of creatures that can best be seen after dusk - including bats, palmate newts and the nightjar.

There will be bat detectors available at the event, on Friday July 15, so that individual species of the flying mammals can be identified as they fly overhead.

A spokesman for the Trust said: “The evening is an ideal family night out and will provide a great chance to see and hear the night life of the woods, ponds and heathlands.”

Wharncliffe Heathlands Trust is run entirely for and by volunteers and its trustees include two ecological consultants, two scientists, two ecologists, a botanist, an environmental campaigner and a forester. Its aim is to create, enhance and conserve areas of traditional open landscape in an area centred on Wharncliffe Wood, manage Wharncliffe Heath Local Nature Reserve for the benefit of wildlife and the neighbouring community, involve the local community in conservation and management and undertake research and data collection relating to managing such landscapes, and disseminate their findings.

Anybody interesting in attending the event later this month is advised to bring a torch, wear appropriate footwear and bring some warm clothing.

The group will meet at the River Don bridge on Station Road in Deepcar - S36 2SQ - at 9pm and the event is scheduled to finish about 11.30pm.